An Unexpected Source
by radredknuxfan
Summary: Everyone saw that Sonic was just his normal self after getting rescued from Dr. Eggman and Infinite. But what if it was all just an act? What if his six months locked up affected him more than he would have liked to admit? Well, help will come, but not from who he would have expected. Cover by lenmeu on deviantART.
1. Chapter 1

It was quiet. Way too quiet.

For those who were getting used to the near constant chaos of war, seeing it now over and the world around them now quiet, it was a big change for them. They were going to have to get used to normal life again, that is once they rebuild.

The regular folk have it easy, though. At least they didn't have to endure six months of torture on Eggman's moon base.

That unfortunate honor fell to the world-renowned hero Sonic the Hedgehog, standing on a cliff and watching as Knuckles and Amy directed the cleanup effort in a nearby town, assisting where needed.

Now, Sonic had always prided himself on never letting anything get to him. People looked up to him as a hero, so he always had to keep a brave face on, even when things got hard for him, like when Eggman used the power of Dark Gaia to turn him into a werehog. That wasn't fun for him.

Still, there was only so much a hedgehog like him could take before he broke, and the six months he spent captured by the doctor just happened to be it.

While Sonic was too proud to admit it to anyone out loud, he knew that if Eggman really put his mind to it, he could be as sadistic as he wanted to, and the torture he put Sonic through proved it without a doubt, being less physical and more mental.

Thankfully, the resistance was there to bust him out before he finally broke (and getting to kick Zavok's butt was a nice stress reliever), but what had happened in that cell was always in the back of his mind.

Luckily, he'd had the war to keep his mind off of it, but once Infinite and Eggman were defeated and the Phantom Ruby was destroyed, Sonic had nothing else to occupy himself, so the memories came back in full force.

Sonic desperately needed to get away from everyone for a while, so that was why he was standing on said cliff having just had a nervous breakdown in peace. Frankly, he was lucky that everyone was used to him running off on his own a lot, because he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to handle the awkward questions that would come each time he tried to have some private time to himself.

Still, it was worth it for him to put up with it, because he had no intention of letting anyone know of what he was dealing with, not even his friends.

After wiping his eyes with a gloved hand to hopefully clear up some of the tearstains, Sonic decided he was probably going to have to head back before the others started to get concerned.

Zipping off, Sonic made a quick U-turn around the bottom of the cliff before speeding off to the town he was looking over before, coming to a stop inches of front of Knuckles as a gust of wind followed in his wake.

"Sonic! We just spent the last hour cleaning all that up." said Knuckles.

Sonic was admittedly slightly puzzled, but after looking to where the annoyed echidna was gesturing to, he soon realized that he'd accidentally scattered a pile of debris around the area that was originally in a neat pile.

"Whoops." said Sonic, a sheepish grin on his face as he scratched the back of his neck. "Sorry about that. Guess I kind of poured the speed on a bit too hard. Need any help getting that back together?"

Knuckles sighed heavily, pressing a gloved hand to his temple to relieve a headache coming on.

"No, Amy and I have got it."

Sonic glanced over to where Amy was standing with some civilians, looking slightly windswept but otherwise normal. After a small smile of acknowledgement which Amy quickly returned, Sonic turned back towards Knuckles.

"So…is there anything else I can do? I'm getting kind of restless here."

Knuckles opened his mouth, intending to make a snippy comment, but Amy beat him to the punch, stepping in front of the suddenly bewildered echidna.

"Actually, I just remembered that Tails said he needed a hand."

"Really? What's he up to now?" asked Sonic, genuinely curious.

"Apparently working on some upgrades of some sort for Omega. Come on, I'll take you to him."

"Hang on, Amy. What about Knuckles?"

Sonic's voice was lowered as he spoke, not wanting the subject in question to hear what they were talking about. Luckily, he seemed to be busy recollecting all of the debris that Sonic messed up, so for all intents and purposes the echidna wasn't really listening.

"I'm sure he'll be alright for a little bit. Now come on!"

Sonic couldn't help but be puzzled as to what was going on with Amy as she grabbed his wrist and began leading him off towards one of the buildings down the way, letting go once they got going.

Once they were out of earshot of the others, Amy quickly went to work, turning towards Sonic as they continued walking.

"Listen Sonic, are you doing alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." said Sonic, his answer coming out very quickly as he was used to having to deal with those questions by now.

However, unlike other days, Amy wasn't willing to just drop the subject. Taking a few quick steps forwards, the pink hedgehog stepped in front of Sonic, the blue blur forced to stop as he gave her a puzzled look.

"I'm sorry, Sonic, but I'm not convinced you are fine. I know you like to have your alone time sometimes, but I've noticed that it's been starting to get excessive ever since the war ended."

Sonic really didn't want to get into an argument with Amy, but he really felt the need to at least defend himself.

"Amy, I just needed some time to think. That's all. Seriously, I don't know why you're being so persistent right now."

"Tails and I are worried about you, Sonic. Especially Tails." said Amy matter of factly. "The poor kid's been a mess ever since you got captured all those months ago, and you going off on your own so much is really not helping him."

Sonic opened his mouth once more, but he quickly realized that Amy was right. Ever since he was filled in on what had happened while he was gone, he'd wanted to make things up with his best friend, but he'd unfortunately never found the chance to. Even after the war was over, the cleanup combined with his issues had sidetracked him ever since.

Letting out air through his nose, Sonic brushed his hands through his quills before focusing his attention on Amy once more.

"You're right as always, Ames. I think I'm going to have a nice long talk with him."

Even though the original point of joining him was to lead him to the two-tailed fox, Amy instead smiled, pointing off towards a nearby building.

"Last I saw him, he was working inside that building."

"Good."

Sonic lifted a foot up to speed off to the building, but after a few seconds he reconsidered, not wanting to make a mess of Tails's work like he did with Knuckles and Amy. Plus, it wasn't really all that far anyway.

Adopting a brisk pace, it still didn't take very long for Sonic to reach the building that Amy pointed him to, and as he came up to the blown-out entrance, he could see his best friend just inside, his back to the doorway as he stood over the deactivated Omega. There were also flashes of what Sonic assumed to be welding sparks coming from between them, so as he stepped into the building, he raised a hand to shield his eyes from the bright light.

"Yo!" said Sonic, having to shout a bit to be heard over the torch. "How's it going, Tails?"

The torch was thankfully shut off, and as Sonic lowered his arm back to his side, Tails looked behind him and saw the blue hedgehog, beaming as he raised the welding mask he was wearing.

"Hey, Sonic!" he said. "Glad to see you've finally decided to join the rest of us."

"Me too, little buddy. So, what have you been up to?"

Sonic was specifically looking at Omega as he spoke, so Tails was quickly able to understand what the hedgehog was getting at.

"Oh, right! I've noticed that Omega's machine guns tended to jam sometimes, so I looked inside him and noticed that the belt feeding system was worn out, most likely from lack of use. He was pretty rusty when I found him back while you were…gone."

Sonic was about to ask Tails to translate his tech speak into something he might be able to understand, but when the fox mentioned the word gone, all of those thoughts immediately went out of the window as he saw the distressed look on the kid's face.

Sonic immediately dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around Tails, lightly patting him on the back as his shoulders shook, the young fox trying his best not to cry.

"It's okay. I'm here. I'm not going to leave you again."

Luckily, Tails was able to hold himself together, so when he heard the hitching in Tails's breath come to a stop, he let him go, smiling as he watched Tails wipe his eyes with a hand.

"You gonna be alright?" he asked.

"Yeah. I just…I'm still not quite used to seeing you back. I was so convinced that you weren't going to come back after seeing you get beaten so easily by Infinite and get taken away to Eggman's ship. I don't want to think about what they could have done to you there."

Sonic froze, looking haunted as the memories flooded back unfortunately thanks to being reminded of that time.

"Are you alright, Sonic?" asked Tails, having clearly noticed Sonic's sudden change in demeanor, not to mention feeling Sonic's hands squeezing his shoulders a little too hard.

The only real sign that Sonic had even heard his best friend was his ear flicking towards him, but luckily he managed to pull himself together, shaking his head before focusing his attention back on the fox in front of him.

"Yeah, I'm good. I was just…thinking for a bit."

Tails did not look convinced, but at this point in time he desperately wanted to avoid ending up driving Sonic away, so he reluctantly kept his mouth shut.

Meanwhile, Sonic was admittedly a little nervous that Tails would see through his admittedly weak excuse. Thankfully, even though his expression said differently, Sonic was a bit relieved when Tails didn't say anything about it, taking that fact as a win.

Before things got more awkward between them, Sonic decided it was probably a good time to change the subject, so after returning to his feet, he clasped his hands behind his back, rocking back and forth on his feet as he adopted a playful tone.

"So…I hear a certain two-tailed fox could use a bit of help working on…whatever it is he was working on." he said, mentally wincing as he realized he forgot what Tails was working on.

"I suppose that's true. Is there anyone who would be able to help?" asked Tails, smiling as he was luckily catching on.

"Well, I'm not busy with anything, so I guess I could help out." said Sonic, retaining his tone as he drew out the word 'guess'.

Almost beaming knowing that he managed to pull Tails out of his funk, Sonic spent the next few hours with his friend, handing off tools when needed, but for the most part just spending time catching up since the whole mess started.

Once the sun set, though, they both knew that they were going to have to go to bed early considering there was still a ton of work to do with the restoration efforts.

Unfortunately, Omega wasn't in a state where he could be turned back on so that they could head back home, so they had to stay the night inside the town. Luckily, the townsfolk were more than happy to accommodate them, letting both Sonic and Tails as well as Amy and Knuckles stay in an unused house.

While the latter three were eager to get some sleep, the former really felt like he wasn't going to be able to sleep. He didn't blame Tails in the least for bringing the memories back, but the fact that they were back at all didn't help his mental state.

So, while the others headed into the house, Sonic decided he needed to take a bit of a walk alone.

Thankfully, everyone else was too worn out from the long day to pay too much attention, so he managed to sneak off without any issue.

As he began walking, though, he soon realized that the fresh air wasn't doing him any favors, as images flashed through his mind of the hallucinations that Infinite put him through at the behest of the doctor, images that would scar even the hardest person in the world.

Frankly, Sonic was surprised that Infinite would have had that kind of ability even with the powers he had, but then again, this was just another form of proof of the doctor's extremely sadistic nature.

His face scrunching up in a desperate attempt to get the images out of his mind, Sonic quickly ducked into a nearby alleyway, clutching at his head as he curled into a ball.

His shoulders soon began to shake as Sonic, the normally unflappable hero, was struggling to keep his emotions in.

"You're okay. You're okay." repeated Sonic to himself, almost like a mantra as he tried to calm himself down, rocking back and forth on his behind.

He wasn't okay, though, as the images in his mind refused to go away, and the quiet words soon gave way to quiet sobs as Sonic hid his face in between his legs.

Over the next few minutes, the only sound in the area was the blue blur having yet another nervous breakdown.

Unfortunately for Sonic, though, the emotional toil he was currently going through meant that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. If he was doing so, he would have heard the telltale sound of a grappling hook connecting with a nearby building.

The owner of said grappling hook soon swung in, landing with a soft thunk on the ground, followed by some gravel falling on the ground as well as he detached the hook from its connecting point.

Once the noise stopped though, the owner, a red wolf with military green boots and gloves and a pair of glasses attached to a communicator, stopped, having heard a noise coming from nearby.

Carefully following the noise, the wolf eventually came up to the alleyway and took a few steps inside only to stop, his jaw dropping as he saw just who was inside.


	2. Chapter 2

"Woah."

That was the only word that could come to mind as the red wolf stood frozen in place, looking at the sobbing mess that helped him win the war against the Eggman Empire.

Honestly, he didn't know what to think. He was so used to seeing and hearing of Sonic as an unshakeable hero, seeing him as broken down as he was completely caught him off guard.

The red wolf briefly considered just sneaking off and letting him have his moment, but his curiosity got the better of him.

Tiptoeing forwards, the wolf slowly reached out before tapping Sonic on the shoulder, jumping backwards and covering his head with his hands as the hedgehog nearly jumped out of his skin.

Thankfully, he didn't get an immediate boot in the face, so he took it as a sign to lower his arms, and as he did, he saw Sonic's head whipping back and forth before coming to a stop as he spotted him.

Surprisingly though, once the two of them locked eyes, Sonic's eyes widened for just a moment before hurriedly looking away and wiping his eyes against his arm.

"Hey Rookie, how's it going?" he said, plastering on a smile as he hoped that the lack of lighting would hide the state he was in. "I didn't expect to see you back so soon."

"I was just in the area and saw you guys helping out with the restoration. I thought I'd help out." he said quickly before addressing the elephant in the room. "Sonic, were you crying?"

"Crying? What are you talking about?" asked Sonic, becoming tense as he really wanted to change the subject.

"Sonic, I was watching you for the past five minutes curled up in the corner bawling your eyes out. Also, I can see that your eyes are red."

Sonic remained silent, quickly turning around as he tried to hide his face from the red wolf. However, all the time that the red wolf spent with Sonic taught him never to shy away from anything that you could help fix.

So, after steeling his nerves, he stepped forwards.

"Sonic please, talk to me. You may not know me as well as some of your other friends, but I'm here for you if you need anything."

Sonic didn't move, his focus on the ground in front of him as he considered whether to go along with what the rookie was saying.

To be honest, he wanted to just keep quiet and keep his heroic air alive, but with him having clearly seen him at his darkest point, there was no way he was going to convince the wolf that he didn't see anything. Sonic's spent enough time with him to know just how smart he could be.

Plus, even though the rookie's probably the last person he would have thought of, Sonic knew that he was going to have to eventually talk to someone to work through his…problems.

Still, he couldn't help but feel incredibly reluctant.

Sonic was never one to be able to put his feelings into words. Being the touchy-feely type was more Amy's territory, and she obviously liked to show it in her own overly obsessive way. If he ever needed to let off some steam, he would just go on a run for a while. It usually did the trick.

Unfortunately, with this, it wasn't as easy as running. If it was, he would have been cured a long time ago and he wouldn't be in a random alley curled in the fetal position.

Sighing heavily, Sonic slowly turned his head around to face the rookie, knowing he was probably going to regret this decision down the road.

"Can we talk about this somewhere more private?"

The rookie couldn't help but be puzzled, but he nodded, and the two of them headed further down into the alleyway, ducking into a nearby abandoned building where Sonic believed that they would be alone, especially at this time of the evening.

Once they arrived, the two of them both grabbed some chairs from nearby, Sonic sitting in his backwards while the rookie sat in his normally.

The two of them sat in silence for a few moments before Sonic once again sighed heavily.

"So, rookie…"

Just as he was starting, though, Sonic was interrupted when the rookie held up a hand.

"Sorry, Sonic. I don't mean to be rude and all, but can you please not call me rookie? The war's over, and we're essentially equals right now. I'd rather not still be treated as a sort of underling."

Sonic blinked in surprise for a few moments, slightly caught off guard by the rookie's forceful tone, but he pulled himself together quickly.

"Alright, fair enough. What should I call you then?"

"By my real name. Gadget."

"Fine by me. Let's start over."

Sonic let out a breath to calm his nerves.

"So, Gadget. Do you remember back when you and the others busted me out of Eggman's moon base?"

"Well, I wouldn't say that we busted you out, per se. It was more like you busted yourself out, and we just happened to be there to help you get home."

"Alright, don't worry about the semantics. Just answer the question."

"Yeah. Yeah, I do remember." said Gadget, slightly puzzled.

Sonic paused for a few moments to collect his thoughts before he started talking, recounting all he could remember of his six-month capture.

Gadget looked more and more horrified as Sonic spoke of the mental torture that the doctor put him through, his hands gripping his arms tightly as he realized just how frightening the doctor could be.

Eventually, Sonic fell silent, unable to say anything else as he was already starting to choke up.

Thankfully, he was able to hold himself together, and Gadget finally spoke up when the hedgehog was finally silent.

"Wow…that was…"

"Heavy?" suggested Sonic.

"Yeah. Very heavy."

It was then Gadget's turn to sigh, balancing on the back of his chair as he thought about what Sonic said.

"Listen, Sonic. I appreciate you telling me about all this, but I'm not sure why you decided to come to me about this."

Sonic didn't answer immediately, as he was busy forcing his pride back down into his gut so he could ask what he had originally wanted to ask.

"Gadget…I need your help." he said, forcing the words out.

Gadget was completely caught off guard by what the hedgehog said, his face blank for a few moments before he held his hands up once more.

"Woah, pump the brakes there, Sonic. Why are you asking me? Why not just ask one of the others?"

"Because you're the only one I can go to. Tails isn't in a state where I'd feel comfortable talking to him about this kind of stuff. And Amy and Knuckles are out unless you wanted your problems punched or made deaf."

Gadget still in no way felt comfortable doing this kind of thing. His eyes were as wide as saucers as he tried desperately to think of a way to get around this.

"Sonic, please…I'm not a psychiatrist. I don't know the first thing about helping people with emotional issues."

"I'm not asking for a psychiatrist!" said Sonic, a little too loudly.

Both of them froze in place, hoping that Sonic's outburst didn't catch the attention of any nearby civilians, but after a minute or so of waiting with no sign of anyone coming, they returned to their conversation.

"Listen, all I'm looking for is someone who I can talk to. Honestly, it doesn't matter to me if you make any suggestions or not. I just…really need to vent."

"No offense, Sonic, but are you sure that venting is going to help? The way you were talking before, I was led to believe that your issues are way deeper than that."

"I need to do something!" said Sonic, throwing his arms into the air before letting them fall on his head.

Overwhelmed by the stress he was going through, Sonic turned away from Gadget, curling into a ball as he gripped his head with his hands to relieve the headache he was getting.

"I can't deal with this anymore." said Sonic, continuing. "I'd rather stay awake for the rest of my life than have to deal with having these nightmares every single day of my life!"

Gadget had no idea what to say at this point. He was so used to seeing the version of Sonic that everyone knew, that seeing him like this was mind-blowing for the young wolf.

Sighing heavily, Gadget ran his hands over his face, deciding that he probably wasn't going to be able to get out of this.

"Alright, fine. I'll give it a shot."

Gadget was suddenly caught off guard, though, when Sonic spun around lightning quick, reaching over and placing his hands on the wolf's shoulders, immediately invading his personal space as he looked relieved.

"Thank you." he said, sounding desperate. "You don't know how much better this makes me feel, Gadget."

Feeling slightly awkward, Gadget pushed Sonic's hands off of his shoulders, causing a thunk to reverberate in the room as Sonic's chair contacted the ground.

"Sorry to break it to you, Sonic, but I can't make you any promises." he said, standing up as he brushed himself off. "As I've said before, I'm not a psychiatrist. Don't be mad at me if I'm not any help."

Sonic admittedly was only half-listening at this point, as his mind was busy wandering thanks to the prospect of actually having a normal life again.

Thankfully, though, Gadget didn't seem to notice, as his attention was diverted by a beep emitting from a device on his wrist.

Checking the device, Gadget bit back a curse as he read the message on the screen.

"Something up?" asked Sonic, having noticed the look on the wolf's face.

"It's nothing, really." he said. "My girlfriend saw me grapple in, and she wants to see me before she has to leave to head back to Westopolis."

"Oh, alright." said Sonic, sounding nonchalant before the other part of the sentence registered in his mind. "Wait, you have a girlfriend?"

"It's not important!" said Gadget a little too loudly, a blush showing even through his red fur as he realized he shared a little too much about himself.

Luckily for him, even though Sonic was normally one who liked to tease the others, he really wasn't in the mood to do it today considering what he's been through, so he decided to let it go just this once.

"Sounds like you should get going, then. Don't want her to get mad at you for standing her up."

Gadget started, quickly realizing that Sonic was right. Turning around, he took a step towards the blown out entrance of the building they were in, only to pause as he turned his head back to face Sonic.

"Let's worry about hashing out the details of this tomorrow, alright? We'll meet up after the next Resistance meeting."

Sonic was admittedly a little puzzled for a moment hearing Gadget mention a meeting, but as he thought back, he quickly remembered hearing Knuckles talking about how he wanted to meet up to figure out what they wanted to do about Infinite, as the mysterious jackal was still missing ever since he disappeared after Eggman's defeat.

Frankly, Sonic would have been happy never having to see Infinite again, as that mask he wore was very much prevalent in his memories of his torture. However, even without the Phantom Ruby, Infinite was still very much dangerous.

"Yeah, alright. Sounds good." said Sonic, nodding.

Satisfied, Gadget turned back around and quickly rushed out of the building, his form quickly disappearing as he grappled away.

As for Sonic, he decided to take a few moments to rest, placing his hands on the chair as he rested his chin against them, rocking back and forth on the chair as he thought about what was ahead of him.

Even though he wanted to think otherwise, Sonic wasn't dumb. He knew that he wasn't going to be able to fix his myriad of issues just by using Gadget as his shrink. It wasn't that simple.

However, sheer desperation combined with being massively stubborn meant that he would have been ready to say anything to avoid having to admit to his friends that he wasn't the cocky hedgehog that everyone knew.

He also hated being pitied. He was too nice to actually tell anyone that, but he remembered at least a few instances where he took some time away to cool off after having to listen to someone try to be sympathetic to him.

So, as much as his heart was yelling at him to just tell everyone and get it over with, the command never reached his brain, as his harebrained scheme to avoid the truth won out.

Sighing, Sonic finally extricated himself from his chair, placing his and Gadget's chair back where they found them before heading out of the building and back into the streets.

Sonic ended up taking a longer route around the town, wanting to deliberately avoid going through the alleyway and end up being reminded of his episode. The fact that he was still pretty disheveled looking didn't help, either.

After making a mental note to clean himself up once he got back to the house, Sonic began walking down the streets.

Thankfully, it was late enough in the night that most of the street lights that weren't damaged were off to save electricity, so it was dark enough that they most likely wouldn't be able to see Sonic well enough to notice.

Even then, there were a few close calls, as Sonic saw a couple of people look his way, most likely due to his stature. To get around this, Sonic picked up the pace a bit, easily losing the onlookers as he disappeared around various corners.

Eventually, Sonic found himself back at the house where the others were. As he looked at the building, though, he found that there was good news and bad news.

The bad news was that the front door was locked. While disappointing, Sonic knew that this was the right thing for the owner of the house to do considering the possibility of looters.

The good news, though, was that one of the side windows were open to let in air. The only problem was that it just so happened to be the room where Tails and Knuckles were sleeping, so Sonic knew that he was going to have to be careful not to wake them.

Tiptoeing up to the window, Sonic carefully gripped the window with both hands before slowly lifting it upwards. While it did make some noise, it was quiet enough that Sonic felt comfortable keeping it going.

Once it was up high enough, Sonic shifted his position before lifting one of his legs up, sticking it through the opening before squeezing his head through once he was straddling the window frame.

When his other leg joined his first inside, Sonic carefully returned the window to its original position before ducking through a nearby doorway, thankful that they managed to get a room with its own bathroom.

After washing his face using the bucket of water and using a comb to straighten his fur out, Sonic returned to the bedroom and took the remaining bed, too wiped out to worry about what the others would think about seeing him pop in so late.


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning found Sonic waking up surprisingly refreshed, especially considering the long day he had.

After pulling himself out of his bed, Sonic stretched out his limbs before looking around and noticing that Tails and Knuckles were gone.

Although puzzled at first, as he looked outside and noticed how light it was outside, he soon realized that he must have slept in, and they'd already left for the day.

Shrugging, Sonic decided he probably should get going, too, so after cleaning himself off, he headed outside and back into town, only to quickly run into Gadget.

"Oh, hey Sonic." he said, slightly caught off guard at the sudden meeting. "What's up?"

"Uh, nothing." said Sonic, not wanting to bring the subject of last night up in public. "Where are you headed off to?"

"The Resistance meeting. There was supposed to be one at noon, remember?"

Sonic paused, looking out at the horizon and noticed that the sun was just about at its highest point.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about that. We'd better get going so we're not late."

"Yeah, I was just about to do that when I ran into you." said Gadget, pointing off in the distance.

"Need a hand?" asked Sonic. "You look like you were running behind schedule a bit."

"Well, it didn't help that I was up so late." mumbled Gadget.

"What was that?"

"Nothing. Listen, we're already wasting more time than I'd like, so I guess I will take you up on that ride."

"Cool."

Sonic picked up Gadget bridal-style, and although the wolf was a little embarrassed with the position he was in, he stayed put as Sonic sped off, coming to a stop after what felt like a few seconds in front of the Resistance Base.

After Sonic put Gadget back on the ground, and the wolf managed to stop his legs from shaking due to the speed he was traveling at, they headed inside to find everyone was already there, including Tails, who walked towards Sonic when he noticed his arrival.

"Hey Sonic." said Tails. "Where were you last night? You didn't come to bed with us last night, and when I woke up, you were suddenly in bed."

"I just needed a walk. That's all."

Tails was clearly not convinced by Sonic's simple answer, but before he could try to wheedle out an actual answer, Knuckles stepped in.

"Can we save this conversation for later, you guys? I'd like to get the meeting started."

Although Tails was admittedly a little annoyed at getting cut off before he could get some answers, he shrugged before gesturing towards the crowd of Resistance members, signaling for Sonic to come join the meeting.

With Gadget and Tails following close behind, Sonic led the way as the three of them joined the meeting that was just starting.

"Alright, let's get down to business." said Knuckles, stepping into the middle of the group to take the reins. "Infinite may have been defeated, but without an actual body to confirm, we can't risk getting comfortable. So, first order of business."

Knuckles paused for a moment before finally sharing said first order.

"I do have some ideas in mind, but I'd like to hear what all of you have to say. If and when we do run into Infinite, I'd like some suggestions as to how we are going to make sure that he isn't going to become a problem again."

"But, didn't Gadget and the two Sonics destroy the Phantom Ruby?" asked Charmy, sounding unconcerned. "I mean, that jewel technically his main source of power, so now that it's gone, what's the issue?"

"While the bee is technically correct…" interjected Shadow, ignoring the look Charmy gave him. "Infinite is nowhere near a pushover. I know him better than anyone in this room."

"Looks like someone's being a show-off." commented Sonic, earning a glare from his dark-furred counterpart.

Thankfully, Shadow didn't do anything more than that, so while Knuckles was keeping an eye on the two of them to make sure they didn't come to blows, he continued speaking.

"As Shadow so succinctly said, Infinite is still dangerous even without the Phantom Ruby. A trained mercenary like him is capable of many things, so we have to be vigilant."

Knuckles looked around, expecting somebody to speak up to argue against his point, but thankfully no one seemed to do so.

"Good to see that everyone has the same idea. Anyway, let's get back to our original plan. Give me some ideas, or I'm going to just share mine early."

"Ugh, if you're so eager to share your plan, Knuckles, why don't you just do it already?" said Amy, slightly annoyed that the echidna was being cagey.

"Alright, fine!" said Knuckles defensively. "If we manage to find him, I suggest we lock him up!"

Knuckles paused; his arms spread wide as he waited to see what the others would think of it.

"That's not all that special." said Vector, looking unimpressed.

"Oh, what do you know!" said Knuckles, whipping his head around to face the crocodile.

"Knuckles does have a point, though." said Espio, stepping between the two of them. "Locking him up is the only reliable way we can make sure that he's not going to escape and try to rejoin the Doctor, at least outside of eliminating him."

"And we're not going to be doing that. We're not killers."

"Sonic's right." said Silver, standing nearby. "However, that's not the most important question that we need to answer. If we ever do find him, where are we going to lock him up anyway?"

"Why not Prison Island?" said Vector. "It's far away, so he's definitely not going to bother us there."

"Did you forget about the fact that GUN disbanded not long after the war started?" said Rouge, a smirk on her face as she stepped forwards. "Even if they bothered to repair the buildings after Eggman blew up the island, there's no one there to watch him."

"Oh please, don't try to ignore the fact that you and Shadow helped him." said Knuckles, his arms crossed as he stared at the bat.

"Oh, come now, Knuckles. That was years ago. When are you going to let that go?" she asked.

With her tone being as smug as it was, this ended up touching a nerve in the notoriously hotheaded echidna.

Luckily, before he could step forwards to get physical, he was stopped when his whole body was encased in cyan light.

Whipping his head around, he saw that Silver had his hand out towards him, his glove glowing the same cyan color as he was using his psychokinetic powers to hold the echidna back.

"What are you doing?" he asked, glaring at the white hedgehog.

"Saving you from making a mistake. Now, are you going to calm down, or am I going to have to hold you up in time out?"

Knuckles was admittedly still a little angry, but after breathing in and out for a second or two, he opened his eyes once more, now looking noticeably calmer.

"I'll be alright." he said. "We need to get back to the meeting anyway."

Silver wasn't entirely convinced, but he released his hold on Knuckles, the echidna landing on his feet as he quickly brushed himself off.

"So, back to business."

He turned towards Gadget and Tails, the former caught off guard as he didn't expect to get called on so soon after what happened.

"I haven't heard anything from either of you two yet. Do you guys have any ideas about what we're going to do about keeping Infinite under control?"

Tails didn't have an answer, but surprisingly Gadget actually did.

"How about we keep him here?"

"Excuse me?" asked Amy. "What are you talking about? We don't have anywhere to hold someone here."

"Well then, why don't we just make a place?"

The room fell silent after Gadget's question, trading looks between each other.

"You know, there is that one storage room we haven't used much. We can always convert that room into a holding cell." said Charmy, placing a finger on his chin as he looked contemplative.

"That is true, but where are we going to find cell doors that are in one piece? All of the jails that I've seen have been destroyed in the war." said Vector.

"How about Prison Island?"

Everyone looked over at Tails, surprised to see him finally speak up.

"Tails, were you listening? Prison Island was blown up." said Amy, slightly puzzled as she wondered if something was up with the young fox.

"Yeah, years ago. And everyone's ignored it since. What are the odds that Eggman's one of those people, and hasn't touched it when he took over the world? He was the one who destroyed the island, anyway."

It was once again silent, as everyone was busy thinking about what Tails said.

"You know, you're right." said Sonic, stepping in partially because of the mission, but mostly because he wanted to try and distract his best friend from his suspicions. "I think we should try and fly over there and see if we can find a cell door there."

There was muttering between all of the other members of the Resistance outside of Sonic, Tails and Gadget, who were watching concerned as they wondered whether they would agree to this plan.

Thankfully, as Knuckles stepped forwards, judging by the expression on his face, it looked like he was receptive to the idea.

"This is probably going to be our best chance. All in favor of going to Prison Island and finding a cell door to convert the storage room to a holding cell, raise your hands."

Everyone except for Shadow and Rouge raised their hands, and although it was already clear which side won, he still wanted to go through the whole process.

"All opposed?"

Rouge raised her hand, but Shadow's hands remained down, his arms still crossed in front of his chest.

Although annoyed at Shadow's lack of interest in participating, Knuckles knew it was pointless to try and get him to vote, especially with how lopsided it was in favor, so he shrugged and turned to the rest of the crew.

"So, it looks like we're headed to Prison Island. I want only a small group to go, though, since we still need most of us here for the recovery efforts."

Knuckles quickly turned away for a moment, thinking about what to do next.

"Tails will obviously be going, as he's the only one who can pilot the Tornado."

As Tails nodded in understanding, Sonic briefly considered saying something considering the Tornado was originally his plane, but he decided against it, not wanting to cause an issue.

"I think Vector should come along as well. We're going to need someone strong to be able to carry the door."

"You got it." said Vector.

"Last person will be…the Rookie."

Gadget was immediately taken aback after hearing his name being called. While he was admittedly a little miffed that Knuckles was still calling him by that name, that was the least of his concerns.

Looking over at Sonic, a pit opened up in his stomach as he saw the blue hedgehog looking as white as a sheet, the wolf very much concerned knowing that their plans were falling apart before their eyes.

"Whoa, hold on, Knuckles!" he said, his voice coming out a little louder than he wanted to. "I don't mean to question your authority or anything, but why me? Wouldn't someone like…I don't know…Espio be more suitable than me?"

The chameleon glanced over in Gadget's direction, puzzled due to being Gadget's suggestion, but before he could make a comment, Knuckles spoke up again.

"Okay, you have a point, but let me explain."

Knuckles took a few steps towards Rouge, pointing towards her for a moment as he spoke.

"Rouge used to work for GUN back before everything went down."

Gadget was noticeably surprised to hear that factoid, although as he thought about it, he realized that there was a lot he didn't know about the others.

"Anyway, during one of our first meetings after forming the Resistance, Prison Island came up in the conversation, and Rouge mentioned that she heard from GUN that ever since the explosion, the island itself has been…unstable."

"Okay. That doesn't explain why I'm needed out there." said Gadget.

"Easy. If a part of the island starts to collapse, Tails can easily fly out of there, but someone's going to need to get Vector out of there, and I think that your grappling hook is the best choice for doing so."

Gadget couldn't help but be nervous. While he could see Knuckles's point, this didn't get him any closer to preventing him from getting separated from Sonic.

Unfortunately, as much as he tried to think of another way to convince Knuckles to change his mind, nothing came up, so after throwing an apologetic look Sonic's way, he sighed heavily.

"Alright, I'll go."

"Good." said Knuckles. "I expect you three to get going as soon as you can. We're going to need some time to get the room ready, and I want to have it ready as soon as possible so we're ready when he pops up again."

The group all nodded before making their way out of the room.

"Now, I think that's all we need to do for today, so I say we call it a day." said Knuckles after looking away from the exiting Prison Island team.

Now that the meeting was officially over, everyone else followed the other team out of the door.

As for Sonic, while he was still trying his best not to panic, it was getting very difficult.

Making his way through the crowd of Resistance members, Sonic jogged his way down the hall, luckily running into the Prison Island team just as they were finished getting an idea of the measurements for the storage room doorway they were using.

"Hey, Gadget!" he said as he walked up, catching the attention of the wolf as he stood up. "Can I talk to you?"

Gadget nodded and went to join Sonic, but as Sonic looked over, he noticed Tails and Vector were still standing there as well, waiting for him.

"Guys, he'll meet you outside. I need to talk to him alone for a minute."

Although concerned, both Tails and Vector gave them space, quickly disappearing around the corner as they headed for the exit.

"Gadget, what the heck was that about?" he asked, annoyed.

"I'm sorry, Sonic, but I didn't know what else to do!" said Gadget, slightly scared. "I couldn't just say no!"

Sonic looked for a second like he was about to start yelling, but he thankfully held himself back.

"I'm really sorry, Sonic. Look, I promise that once we get back, I'll make sure to help you with this."

"Yeah, I know. I guess we can't really get you out of this without making Tails suspicious."

"Yeah, exactly!"

Sonic sighed heavily.

"Sorry for yelling, Gadget. You'd better get going before the others come back."

Gadget almost jumped, realizing that he was in fact spending more time than he wanted to down here.

Sliding his way past Sonic, Gadget made his way down the hallway, looking back at Sonic and dipping his head before disappearing around the corner.

As for Sonic, he spent some time watching the corner Gadget disappeared around before deciding to head off, hoping that he could manage to make it through the days until he returned.


End file.
